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The Council publishes agendas and reports five clear working days before a meeting takes place and publishes the minutes of meetings in a Minute Book that goes to Council. Members of the public are entitled to see these documents unless they contain exempt or confidential information. All of the agendas and minutes can be found on our Eagenda system.

Meetings of the Council are open to the public and usually take place in the chamber suites at The Arc, Clowne. Occasionally there are items included on an agenda which are exempt and for those items the public will be asked to leave the meeting.

Members of the public may ask one question of Councillors at any ordinary meeting of the Council but must put their question in writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than midday, seven clear working days before the day of the meeting.

There are occasions when reports may not be available five clear working days before the date of a meeting because they may relate to ‘urgent items’ of business which cannot wait until the next scheduled meeting of a Committee for a decision.

The Council can undertake a review for example, to establish a new parish council, or to revise parish boundaries where there have been significant changes in population, or to react to a specific new or local issue.

Community Governance Reviews may also be triggered by local people presenting a petition to the Council. For a petition to be valid it must meet specified criteria which includes:

It should define the area to which the review relates on a map or otherwise and refer to identifiable fixed boundaries;

It must specify one or more proposed recommendations for review;

It must contain the requisite number of signatures of people included on the electoral register for the affected area. For an area of less than 500 local electors - 50%, for an area with between 500 and 2,500 local electors - at least 250, for an area with more than 2,500 electors - at least 10%.

Whenever a Community Governance Review is undertaken, we will publish the Terms of Reference and carry out public consultation before putting forward recommendations for Council to approve a Community Governance Order. The process should normally take no more than 12 months to conclude, however any boundary changes will not come into effect until the next election has taken place for the affected parish(es).

Our constitution provides a framework for the democratic processes of the Council. It sets out functions, procedures and terms of reference for us at our meetings. To help give you a quick understanding of how this works we have produced a brief guide (77kb).

Notice is hereby given in accordance with regulation 16 of the above regulations that Bolsover District Council has made its Members’ Allowance Scheme for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. In accordance with regulation 19 the Scheme has been made having regard to the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel in its reports in March 2017. Schedule One below shows the main features of the Panel’s recommendations and the Authority’s response to each one. Schedules Two and Three show the main features of the Scheme and the amounts payable to Members in respect of each allowance.

Copies of the Members Allowance Scheme may be inspected at the principal office of the Council at The Arc, High Street Clowne, S43 4JY during normal office hours - Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 5.00pm. In accordance with regulation 15(1) and 15(2) the records of payments made under the Scheme may be inspected by prior arrangement with the Chief Finance Officer at the above-mentioned principal office. Members of the public may take copies of such documents on payment of such reasonable fee as the Council may determine.

Members retain the existing Special Responsibility Allowance payments to the Chairman of Licensing Committee (£2445) and Vice Chairman of Licensing Committee (£1222).

The Authority rejected this recommendation and agreed that the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Licensing Committee each receive an SRA equivalent to that of a Scrutiny Committee, £3260.48 and £1630.24 respectively.

Members do not index Members Allowances in line with staff pay awards.

Where the level of allowances is linked, changes to the employees’ rates will be reflected in the Members’ Scheme.

Schedule Three - Duties Which Attract Travel Allowance

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Where expenditure is necessarily incurred in connection with the performance of an approved duty;

Council and committee meetings ;

Meetings of outside bodies to which the authority makes appointments and nominations and where the member has been nominated by the Council;

Meetings the holding of which is authorised in advance and where members of both political groups have been invited;

Meetings of associations where the council is a member of the association ;

A duty or class of duty approved for the purpose of or in connection with the discharge of functions as more particularly described in the panel’s report and the Members Allowance Scheme;

Non commercial and non political conferences inside or outside the UK to discuss matters relating to the interest of the area or the inhabitants or any part, in connection with discharging the duties of the Authority or its committees or sub-committees.

Below is a list of allowances paid to members for the following years.

Councillors are subject to a Code of Conduct (43kb) which governs their behaviour when carrying out official duties. This Code forms part of our Constitution.

The Code of Conduct covers matters such as declarations of interest, treating others with respect, not bringing the Council into disrepute. If you have concern about the conduct of a councillor (District, Parish or Town Council) and you think they have breached the Code, you are entitled to make a complaint. This should be done in writing using a complaint form (179kb) and sent to the Monitoring Officer, Bolsover District Council, The Arc, High Street, Clowne, Derbyshire S43 4JY. The complainant should ensure that they have clearly identified the breaches of the Code they are alleging against the Councillor. The complaint cannot be about a Council decision or service delivery issue. We have produced a summary of the complaints process (28kb) for ease of understanding.

Complaints are assessed by the Monitoring Officer who is responsible for deciding how each complaint is dealt with. The Monitoring Officer will decide, following consultation with an independent person, if the complaint is within the jurisdiction of the Code and if there should be an investigation, or if other action should be taken to address the complaint or the conduct of the Member, or if no further action is to be taken.

If a complaint is investigated it may lead to a Standards Committee Hearing and a sanction against the councillor concerned.

Complaints are assessed by the Monitoring Officer who is responsible for deciding how each complaint is dealt with. The Monitoring Officer will decide, following consultation with an independent person, if the complaint is within the jurisdiction of the Code and if there should be an investigation, or if other action should be taken to address the complaint or the conduct of the Member, or if no further action is to be taken.

If a complaint is investigated it may lead to a Standards Committee Hearing and a sanction against the councillor concerned.

Result in the Authority incurring expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the Authority's budget for the service or function to which the decision relates; or

Be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards within the District.

The latest list of Key Decisions (published on 18 January 2019) contain items to be considered in private session contains all the key decisions the Executive expects to make. Key Decisions are decisions taken by Executive that have a cost or savings implication to the Council of £50,000 or more, or are significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more wards in the District.

There are several types of elections that have an impact upon local government. These are Local government elections (parish, district, county); Parliamentary (General) elections and European Parliament elections.